"Groff's gifts as a writer just keep soaring higher and higher." - NPR's Fresh Air

In her thrilling new book, Lauren Groff brings the reader into a physical world that is at once domestic and wild--a place where the hazards of the natural world lie waiting to pounce, yet the greatest threats and mysteries are still of an emotional, psychological nature. A family retreat can be derailed by a prowling panther, or by a sexual secret. Among those navigating this place are a resourceful pair of abandoned sisters; a lonely boy, grown up; a restless, childless couple, a searching, homeless woman; and an unforgettable, recurring character--a steely and conflicted wife and mother.

The stories in this collection span characters, towns, decades, even centuries, but Florida--its landscape, climate, history, and state of mind--becomes its gravitational center: an energy, a mood, as much as a place of residence. Groff transports the reader, then jolts us alert with a crackle of wit, a wave of sadness, a flash of cruelty, as she writes about loneliness, rage, family, and the passage of time. With shocking accuracy and effect, she pinpoints the moments and decisions and connections behind human pleasure and pain, hope and despair, love and fury--the moments that make us alive. Startling, precise, and affecting, Florida is a magnificent achievement.

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Smell, feel, and taste Florida in these sensuous short stories about (mainly) restless and anxious women who have retreated from living. Impending threats and fears overhang each story like a heavy branch that could break in a storm. There is an art to writing a good short story and these measure up.

This book is full of anxious women (particularly mothers), strained relationships, and nature's menace, yet I found many of these stories strangely comforting. Groff's writing is phenomenally accurate and vivid.

Engrossing vignettes of mostly Florida women's lives, somewhat depressing for the stark reality "slice-of-life," not to mention bugs, snakes, lizards, gators, weather, etc. The endings are abrupt, since it's just a "slice," and you are left to either accept that, or to wonder what might have happened next -- similar to something like, "She said a prayer as her car crossed over the freeway divider into oncoming traffic," period, end of story.

I’m not a fan of short stories I only picked up this book, because I have been sick and I needed shorter stories to match my attention span. This book did the trick. It treats Florida much differently than other books about Florida. The citizens of Florida are diverse, and there is diversity in this book about a variety of Floridians all will a different point of view. Excellent writing which leaves the reader to ponder before beginning the next story in the book.